1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a ground joint connector and a wiring harness using this joint connector.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-77140 discloses a joint connector for connecting plural ground wires to a grounding portion of a vehicle at once. This connector has a housing with side by side cavities for receiving female terminals connected to ends of the ground wires. A joint terminal is to be mounted in the housing. The joint terminal has a male terminal portion with male terminals to be accommodated in the respective cavities. Base ends of the male terminals are connected to each other. An L-shaped bracket is connected to the rear of the male terminal portion. A leading end of the bracket has a flat mounting portion formed with a mounting hole.
The female terminals connected to the ends of the ground wires are inserted into the respective cavities of the housing having the joint terminal mounted therein to connect the corresponding pairs of female and male terminals. A bolt stands up at the grounding portion and is inserted into the mounting hole in the mounting portion of the bracket of the joint terminal. A nut is tightened onto the bolt to closely fix the mounting portion to the grounding portion so that the respective ground wires are grounded at once.
The mounted position of the joint connector is subject to vibration and the housing is likely to be shaken when the vehicle is running. Thus, reinforcing beads are formed to increase the strength of the bent part of the bracket bent into the L-shape.
The housing may have to be distant from the grounding portion to mount this type of joint connector on the grounding portion of the vehicle due to a restriction on an arrangement space. In such cases a vertical leg of the bracket may be extended. However, a bending force acts on the joint between the base end of the leg and the rear edge of the male terminal portion when the connector is subject to vibration, and the longer leg might break. Therefore, a countermeasure would be well received.
The invention was developed in view of the above situation and an object thereof is to increase a bending strength of a joint part between a male terminal portion and a bracket in a joint terminal.